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recent deadly incident at a recreational park has raised concerns over safety, but the management of some major parks in the city has ensured safety for their visitors, especially during the current holiday season.

Corporate communications manager at Ancol Dreamland Park, Sofia Cakti, said that park management always applied safety measures for visitors to prevent accidents. These measures, she said, included putting up signs warning people of dangers, such as the prohibition of swimming in restricted zones.

"In other sites, such as Dunia Fantasi Amusement Park, we installed a sign at every attraction informing visitors about the physical requirements of each ride, such as minimal height and health condition rules," Sofia said. For the peak holiday season, the management of the Ancol park has deployed 400 extra officers, including supervisors.

"We employ 35 lifeguards during the off-peak season, and we usually have more during peak seasons," Sofia told The Jakarta Post.

Working hours for lifeguards is divided into three shifts per day, while the shifts of other supervisors is divided into two shifts per day. Lifeguards are on standby at every pool and the beach, while other supervisors regularly patrol around the park. "We also regularly inform visitors through loudspeaker announcements to be careful and to pay attention to the whereabouts of their family or group members," Sofia said.

"In recreational parks, people tend to be occupied by their own activities, without paying attention to other people in their group. Sometimes even parents do not watch their children closely. That's why we keep reminding them."

"We do have a lot of guards, and we have applied standard operational procedures as precaution measures, but visitors should also try and minimize their risks," she said. Ancol management also provides medical clinics and ambulances.

In the end, Sofia said, recreational parks often face the dilemma of maintaining the necessary safety standards and the "customer is king" principle.

"Sometimes we warn parents about the hazards of letting their children play in deep waters, for example, but not all of them pay heed to those warnings. We certainly want to uphold safety standards, but we also have to maintain our courtesy to the customers," she said.

Lidia Puspitasari, a promotions employee at Depok Fantasi Waterpark echoed Sofia's concerns. "We often see our customers doing things that are against safety standards, like that, for instance," she said, nodding towards a little girl trying to climb up a water slide, "and sometimes we warn them, but it's hard as they are customers after all."

The 1.6 hectares, 1001 nights-themed Depok waterpark has an average number of 200 visitors on weekdays, but this number can bulge up to 4000 people on public holidays. Most of the park's pools and slides are aimed at children, with an average depth of 40 centimeters. As many as three lifeguards stand by on weekdays, while on crowded days the park adds three more to accommodate the large influx of visitors.

"Our visitors are mostly from the nearby housing complex. They usually come here by themselves and we know some of them by name," Lidia said. Despite the limited number of lifeguards and the lack of supervision from some parents, she was confident the park will uphold its visitor safety standards.